Beneficiaries of trust, will but not an IRA

[rasman]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Calif.

Hi,
Myself and my two sisters are beneficiaries of our recently deceased father's estate through his revocable trust and a holographic will which he wrote out. All of his assets were pledged to us (in his trust and his will). We recently discovered that he had an IRA that didn't list his trust nor his children as beneficiaries. The bank won't tell us who the benes are.

My question is: do we children have any legal claim to contest the beneficiaries of his IRA per the circumstances above?

THX ALL!

 

[anteater]

My question is: do we children have any legal claim to contest the beneficiaries of his IRA per the circumstances above?

What circumstances?

Because you are to inherit under the terms of the trust and will does not mean that someone else can't be designated as the IRA beneficiary.

 

[FlyingRon]

You're probably going to need a lawyer as you are confused about the differences between IRA account beneficiaries, trusts, and estates.

If you aren't the beneficiary on the IRA they have no obligation to you at all.
If there are no beneficiaries, then whoever gets named as executor in the probate will need to take care of it.
Has probate been opened?
Who is the successor trustee on the trust?

 

[Kiawah]

There are assets, that based on how they are titled (or how beneficiaries are set up), may preclude them from going thru probate and controlled by what is written in the will.

As an example, a bank account and the deed to a house, titled as Joint w/rights of survivorship, would go to the 2nd joint party listed. Doesn't matter what the will says about that bank account or house. If the asset wasn't titled that way and belonged only to the person that died, it would then be part of the estate and distributed thru the probate process.

IRA's, TDSP's, Life Insurance policies all tend to have a beneficiary. Those would then be distributed to the beneficiaries, outside of the probate process. With a beneficiary listed, it doesn't matter what the will says (unless the beneficiary was 'the estate'). Some of these assets could have beneficiaries from decades ago and he never updated them.

 

[rasman]

Clarification

We believe our father (being 91) forgot that he needed to rename the beneficiary of his IRA since he had recently revoked all other wills and codicils when he rewrote his will and revocable trust to leave his entire estate to his children, and named us as trustees.

I was asking if the children had any legal rights to challenge the IRA's beneficiaries-- going to consult with an attorney, thanks.

 

[anteater]

You have the "legal right" to challenge anything. I don't think a "he forgot" argument will get you very far, but you can certainly give it a try.

 

[rasman]

Legal right

I know people can sue for anything-- that's not what I meant but thanks for your timely responses anyway!